Groundwater and Seepage

Abstract

The three sources of the world’s fluid supply — the atmosphere, the earth’s surface, and the subsurface (underground) — are of major importance in physical hydrology. Underground is the most important reservoir for some of the most valued fluids of the earth — water, crude oil, natural gas and others. In this chapter we discuss the occurrence of water underground and the basic principles governing its movement with a view to understanding the problem of extraction and recharge of groundwater and seepage through embankments. The discussions will be limited to the zone in which the water occupies all the voids within a geologic stratum. As this is a basic undergraduate introductory course theoretical considerations are also limited mainly to steady flow situations.